A home cook shares their experience trying to replicate Thomas Keller’s simple roast chicken method while adapting it for a heavily spiced Indian dish. Despite removing moisture-heavy ingredients like yogurt and lemon juice—key to preventing steam and achieving crispy skin—the resulting chicken had thick, rubbery skin, though the meat itself was flavorful. The post details a blend of spices used, including curry leaves, cayenne, turmeric, and garlic, while acknowledging the challenge of balancing seasoning with skin texture. Readers weigh in with tips on perfecting the technique for heavily seasoned roasted chicken.
Years ago I red Thomas Keller’s recipe for a simple roast chicken. He just has you pat it dry thoroughly, salt, and bake. He’s right - that gets you perfectly light crispy skin. Trouble is I am having trouble getting those results when I do a heavily season chicken. For example, tonight, I wanted an Indian spiced chicken. He had said that steam is the enemy of crispy skin, so I eliminated ground fresh red chilis, lemon juice, yogurt, and ginger from this spice mix. However, I did include just the tiniest but of garlic because it seemed necessary. I threw the following in the spice grinder: a ton or curry leaves, cayenne, salt, turmeric, coriander, methi, clove, black peppercorn, black stone flower, lemon zest and just a little bit of fresh garlic. Now I’m going to be honest. It turned out DELICIOUS. Not perfect though - the skin turned thick and rubbery and I just pulled it off and tossed it and ate the rest. Would appreciate any tips on getting a light thin crispy skin when it’s heavily seasoned submitted by /u/augustrem [link] [comments]
